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This paper presents an overview of the evolution & revolution of automotive E/E architectures and how we at Bosch, envision the technology in the future. It provides information on the bottlenecks for current E/E architectures and drivers for their evolution. Functionalities such as automated driving, connectivity and cyber-security have gained increasing importance over the past few years. The importance of these functionalities will continue to grow as these cutting-edge technologies mature and market acceptance increases. Implementation of these functionalities in mainstream vehicles will demand a paradigm shift in E/E architectures with respect to in-vehicle communication networks, power networks, connectivity, safety and security. This paper expounds on these points at a system level.

This paper is based on the experiences with Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) systems at BOSCH. Necessary components (especially range sensor, curve sensors, actuators and display) are described, roughly specified, and their respective strength and weaknesses are addressed. The system overview contains the basic structure, the main control strategy and the concept for driver-ACC interaction. Afterwards the principal as well as the current technical limits of ACC systems are discussed. The consequences on traffic flow, safety and driver behavior are emphasized. As an outlook, development trends for extended functionality are given for the next generation of driver assistance systems.

The consequent means towards improved enhancement of the safety of commercial vehicles will in future times require more and more electronic intelligence, in case a distinct optimization of the systems will not be possible with conventional means. In forefront, endeavours are aimed at the improvements of the functions of the system in regard to driving safety, as well as driver stress relief at lowest possible costs, in order to increase the total cost effectiveness of commercial vehicles. Starting with currently implemented electronic systems up to systems now under development, a continuous development of standalone electronics up to integrated electronic compounding is the current trend. This trend shows advantages of reduced wiring and the number of sensors while it increases the function at the same time.

Current vehicle concepts necessitate the multiple measurement of several variables required by separate electronic systems in the motor vehicle. There is the need to make sensors bus capable by the incorporation of electronic components in new definition concepts, in other words to make them multiply usable. Such bus concepts are at the present time taking concrete shape. The step of introducing electronics - especially digital - to the measuring point may simultaneously be used to considerably improve utilization of the information content of sensor structures using means of indivdual, digital correction to a greater level than has until now been technically possible. There remains the demand for high stability and reproducibility of the sensor properties over time. These signal preprocessing and information condensation processes on the spot also satisfy the need to relieve the central control units.

In the year of 2012 in India the total number of accidents with injuries is registered by Ministry of Road Transport and Highway with 490,383 out of which injured people are 509,667 and fatalities are 138,258 [1]. Nearly 17% of the fatalities are occupants of passenger cars which constitute the second highest contributor for fatal accidents in India [1]. In order to understand the root causes for car accidents in India, Bosch accident research carried out a study based on in-depth accidents collected in India. Apart from other accident contributing factors e.g. infrastructure the driver behaviour and his actions few milliseconds just prior to the crash is an extremely important and a key valuable data for the understanding of accident causation. Further on it supports also the development of modern automotive safety functions. Hence this research was undertaken to evaluate the benefit of the state-of-the art vehicle safety systems known as Antilock Braking System (ABS).

The car industry has reached a point where electronic systems, which were so far essentially autonomous, begin to grow together to a Car-Wide Web. The main driving force is the demand for more safety, security, and comfort implemented economically. Already various parties are working on control networks. In the long run, vehicle motion and dynamic systems, safety, security, comfort as well as mobile multimedia systems will integrate and reach out for the vision of accident-free, comfortable, and well-informed driving. As a foundation for a Car-Wide Web, Bosch is developing an open architecture called CARTRONIC. The essence of CARTRONIC is to define structuring rules, modeling rules and patterns for total, integrated control of vehicles. The rules and patterns allow the mapping of high-level functions onto several physical implementations, for instance one logical description of functional connections could be created for cars with different equipment packages.

Passenger car DI Diesel engines need a flexible fuel injection system. Bosch develops a common rail system for this purpose. Besides variation of fuel quantity and start of injection, it permits to choosing freely injection pressure inthe rangeof 150 to 1400 barand injecting fuel in several portions. These new means will contribute to further improvements of DI engines concerning noise, exhaust emissions and engine torque.

The objective was to develop a modem engine to succeed the M 102; 2.6 million of these units were made between 1979 and today making it the most successful Mercedes-Benz four-cylinder petrol engine to date. The new M 111 coordinated production set-up together with the familiar M 104 six-cylinder four-valve engines and the 600 diesel series. Emphasis has been deliberately given to improved torque rather than very high volumetric efficiency. This has made it possible to apply four-valve technology, which was originally only to be found in motor racing, in such a way that ordinary customers can benefit form advantages such as high torque and raised power output, as well as reduced fuel consumption and emissions. Extensive noise-reducing measures in the engine ensure that, despite the higher power output and lower engine weight, noise levels have also been improved.

In order to master the increasing complexity of electrical/electronic (E/E) systems in vehicles, E/E architecture design has become an established discipline. The task of the E/E architecture design is to come up with solutions to challenging and often contradictory requirements such as reduced cost and increased flexibility / scalability. One way to optimize the E/E architecture in terms of cost (electronics & wiring harness) is to integrate functions. This can be done by either combining functions from multiple ECUs into a single ECU or by introducing Domain Control Units. Domain Control Units provide the main software functionality for a vehicle domain, while relegating the basic functions of actuator control to connected intelligent actuators. Depending on the different market segments (low price, volume and premium) and the different vehicle domains, the actual usage of Domain Control Units can be quite different and sometimes questionable.

The settings of adaptive suspension elements may be switched from a comfortable “soft” characteristic to a safe and “firm” characteristic. Thus the possibility is given to not only improve the ride comfort, but the dynamic driving behavior as well, since no compromise must be made between these two criteria when tuning the suspensions. Such systems seem to be very promising for commercial vehicles, as - because of their changing loading conditions - it is very difficult to design an optimal suspension system using conventional springs and dampers. This paper describes the influence of shock absorbers and air springs with variable characteristics on the ride comfort and the dynamic behavior of a 15-t-truck by investigations done with a simulation system. A series production vehicle without adaptive suspension elements serves as basis. At first the results of measurements and simulations are compared and show a very good concurrence.

Sunroof buffeting is examined experimentally and numerically in this paper. Despite the fact that some consider the simulation process for sunroof buffeting to be mature, there remain substantial uncertainties even in recently published methodologies. Capturing the frequencies and especially the sound pressure levels correctly is essential if CFD simulations are intended to be used during early stages of a car development process. Numerous experimental results of sunroof buffeting and the interior low-frequency characteristics of a 2013 Mercedes-Benz S-Class have been used to develop a simplified car model: a full-size S-Class model with slightly simplified geometries in the interior as well as at the exterior. To avoid the effects of numerous different materials in the interior, it is solely made from polyurethane and aluminum and built to maximize its structural rigidity and air-tightness.

The automotive industry is facing new emission regulations, changing customer preferences and technology disruptions. All have in common, that external aerodynamics plays a crucial role to achieve emission limits, reduce fuel consumption and extend electric driving range. Probably the most challenging components in terms of numerical aerodynamic drag prediction are the wheels. Their contribution to the overall pressure distribution is significant, and the flow topology around the wheels is extremely complicated. Furthermore, deltas between different rim designs can be very small, normally in the range of only a few drag counts. Therefore, highly accurate numerical methods are needed to predict rim rankings and deltas. This paper presents experimental results of four different production rim designs, mounted to a modified production car. An accurate representation of the loaded, deformed tire geometry is used in all calculations for comparable conditions between wind tunnel and CFD.

The prime factor which influences noise and vibrations of electro-mechanical drives is wear at the components. This paper discusses the numerical methods developed for abrasion, vibration calculations and the coupling between wear and Noise Vibration and Harshness (NVH) models of the drive unit. The vibration domain model, initially, focuses on the calculations of mechanical excitations at the gear shafts which are generated via a nonlinear dynamic model. Furthermore, the bearings are studied for the influences on their stiffness and eventually their impact on the harmonics of the drivetrain. Later, free and forced vibrations of the complete drivetrain are simulated via a steady-state dynamic model. Consequently, the paper concentrates on the abrasion calculations at the gears. Wear is a complex process and understanding it is essential for determining the vibro-acoustics characteristics.

In the next 20 years the share of small electric vehicles (SEVs) will increase especially in urban areas. SEVs show distinctive design differences compared to traditional vehicles. Thus the consequences of impacts of SEVs with vulnerable road users (VRUs) and other vehicles will be different from traditional collisions. No assessment concerning vehicle safety is defined for vehicles within European L7e category currently. Focus of the elaborated methodology is to define appropriate test scenarios for this vehicle category to be used within a virtual tool chain. A virtual tool chain has to be defined for the realization of a guideline of virtual certification. The derivation and development of new test conditions for SEVs are described and are the main focus of this work. As key methodology a prospective methodical analysis under consideration of future aspects like pre-crash safety systems is applied.

We are faced with a rapidly increasing flood of information to the driver. In addition to established information systems (car radio, vehicle monitoring, mobile phones), high class vehicles feature navigation systems almost as standard. In the next decade, driver assistance and collision mitigation systems will appear in vehicles. Hence, there is an increasing demand for supplying the driver with more information that help him to drive safer and more economical. In parallel, the price decline in the computer market and the availability of powerful graphic hard- and software concepts make it possible to enhance the classical functions of the instrument board to an interactive multifunctional information panel, and the dashboard will be the main interface between car and driver.

Electronic systems have been used in commercial vehicles for quite a few years now. At the start, this primarily related to consumer electronics equipment (car radio and CB radio), but, since the late 70s, electronic control systems have also been used for a wide variety of applications in commercial vehicles. This development went hand in hand with the development of digital microcontrollers. It was only when such powerful electronic circuits were developed that it was possible to implement complex control tasks at feasible cost with adequately compact design. Nowadays, an extremely wide variety of systems is offered for the engine, suspension, brakes, comfort and entertainment.

On the way to automated driving, the installation rate of surround sensing systems will rapidly increase in the upcoming years. The respective technical progress in the areas of driver assistance and active safety leads to a numerous and valuable information and signals to be used prior to, during and even after an accident. Car makers and suppliers can make use of this new situation and develop integrated safety functions to further reduce the number of injured and even deaths in car accidents. Nevertheless, the base occupant safety remains the core of this integrated safety system in order to ensure at least a state-of-the-art protection even in vehicles including partial, high or full automation. Current networked safety systems comprehend a point-to-point connection between single components of active and safety systems. The optimal integration requires a much deeper and holistic approach.

Contemporary diesel engines are high-tech power plants that provide high torques at very good levels of efficiency. By means of modern injecting-systems such as Common-Rail Injection, combustion noise and emissions could be influenced positively as well. Diesel engine are therefore used increasingly in top-range and sports cars. Today's production ECUs have no or only very low feedback regarding the process in the combustion chamber. As long as this data is missing, the design of the maps in the ECU can only be a compromise, since production tolerances and aging processes have to be considered in advance. Disturbances in the combustion process may not be detected at all. If more knowledge about the course of combustion is provided, especially the start of combustion (SOC), various operating parameters, such as the pilot injection quantity or the beginning of current feed to the injector, could be adjusted more precisely and individually for every cylinder.

Meta material has been known for many years and the physics are well known since decades. But the challenge has always been to put the know how into (mass) production. This was the reason why no meta material has found its way into the automotive industry so far. But now things have changed: meta material became Meta Design and is going into serial production in 2024. Meta Design is a tunable spring mass system with foam acting as the spring and heavy layer as the mass. Meta Design is characterized by cavities in the foam and concentrated masses of the heavy layer as functionalized mass pins. By tuning the size of the cavities and the weight of the mass pins the acoustic performance can be adjusted to the requirements of each individual car line. After preliminary simulations, flat samples were tested in the lab. The next step was launched: the production and testing of a handmade prototype part of a firewall insulation for a Mercedes-Benz A-Class.

The paper presents a comparative study of various models used to estimate gas dynamics in internal combustion engine (ICE) ducts. 1D models provide a sufficient accuracy, but they are still not implementable on current ECUs. On the other hand, low order models can be real-time but their lack of accuracy and high calibration cost are still a challenging problem. This work aims at presenting a comparison of currently used gas dynamics models to predict transient phenomena in engine ducts. It emphasizes on 1D and low order models. To test under engine-like conditions, the intake path of a virtual engine implemented in GT-Power and a production two cylinder engine are used. Results show a contrast in the performance of the different models, which gives the possibility to evaluate the various approaches. Based on this assessment and depending on the application in hand, the models can be chosen properly to estimate the gas dynamics in internal combustion engine ducts.